Love, Truth, and Duty: A Meditation on Ezekiel 33 for the 15th Sunday after Pentecost

So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel;

therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.

 

When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die;

if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way,

that wicked man shall die in his iniquity;

 but his blood will I require at thine hand.

 

Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it;

if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity;

but thou hast delivered thy soul.

 

The 6^th century BC Prophet Ezekiel bore the duties of his office not only prior to the Babylonian Captivity of Judah, but as one of the exiles carried away to Babylon after the conquest.  The Lord came to him with His Word of both warning and hope, of Law and Gospel, that he might bear witness to the people.  The Word of the Lord revealed His will, and the people had the choice to either abide in it or abandon it, with consequences related to either path.  If the people disregarded the Word and Will of God, judgment would come upon them, and in fact it did with the conquering and enslavement of the Hebrews by the pagan Babylonians.  But if the people would turn again from their folly and embrace the Lord of Life by abiding in His Word and His Will, God would become again their Savior and Deliverer.  And there was an added revelation and obligation placed upon the Prophet Ezekiel, to whom the Word of the Lord had come:  faithfulness in his witness to that Word would be life to him, but unfaithfulness to that Word would be death.  Not only did the people have a duty with consequences before the Word of the Lord, but so did the messengers of God.

 

While it is important to recognize the singular situation of Ezekiel and the Hebrews during the Babylonian Captivity (i.e., we are not Ezekiel, nor is modern America an analog for ancient Israel,) it is also important to identify the principles which endure regardless of times, places, and peoples.  There is only one God, creator of heaven and earth, to whom all creation must give account in the day of judgment.  That one God has revealed His Will both in the Natural Law written into the created universe, and the Word He has spoken to His Prophets and Apostles which they wrote down for posterity.  The ultimate revelation of God’s Word and Will are revealed through the Incarnation of the Eternal Word, Jesus Christ—to whom, by whom, and through whom all the revelations of Nature and Scripture testify.  In the ages building up to the time of Jesus’ Incarnation, the Prophets pointed forward to the Messiah, calling for all people to live in faith and repentance as they looked forward to that New Day.  In the ages after Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension, the Apostles pointed back to Jesus as the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, until that Last Day when He comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead.  The message to all people has not really changed:  the Word and Will of God still call everyone to faith and repentance, so that everyone might avoid the path which leads to eternal death, and live forever in grace, peace, and forgiveness.

 

What also has not changed is the obligation of the messengers of God.  The love of God and the truth of God, create for His people a duty toward God and their neighbors.  Those to whom the Word and Will of God have come, have a duty born of love to speak the truth to every soul, so that every soul might avoid the calamity of evil and flourish in the redemption of the good.  The messengers of God are sent out in the Spirit of God to declare the testimonies of the Prophets and the Apostles, to bear witness to the Eternal Word in Jesus Christ, and to administer His gifts to others as freely as they have received them.  The messengers of God have a duty to love God above all things, and to love their neighbors as themselves, which produces their witness as Watchmen on the wall of the civilizations into which they are placed.  Such messengers know the calamity which awaits every soul if they enter eternity under the judgment of God for their embrace of evil, and if they do not warn the evil to turn from their wickedness, the wicked will die in their sins—but God will demand justice for the blood of the wicked on their hands.  Likewise, if the messenger is faithful in their witness to God’s Word and Will, they will have preserved their own soul, whether the people heed their witness or not.  There is no one left unaccountable before the Word and Will of God, most especially the messengers God sends to bear witness to all, of the paths of eternal life and death.

 

While this should be a chilling reality for all who have been entrusted with the Word and Will of Almighty God, it should also be a tremendous comfort.  For it is not the word and the will of the messengers nor of the hearers which seeks and saves the lost, but the Word and Spirit of the Living God.  If the souls of the world hinged upon the faithfulness of people and the charisma of messengers, there would no one be saved—but thanks be to God that the Word of the Lord endures forever, and accomplishes what He sends it out to do!  Man did not bring forth the cosmos, but rather God did by His Word and His Will; man did not restore himself to God after his fall into sin, but God did the work of man’s restoration through His Word and Will on Calvary; man could not keep himself in true faith and repentance, but God did the preserving work through His Word and Spirit; man could not by his own power pass from death to eternal life and be resurrected on the Last Day, but God sealed that mighty work until the Great Day by His Word and Will.  Everything man needed but could not accomplish, God has done by His Word and His Will, so that no one who clings to Him by faith will fall out of his saving grace.  Jesus, the Word and Will of God made flesh, has accomplished all that we needed to be restored to God, to be saved from judgement, and to abide in blessed life forever.

 

This is the Word to which we are called, the Word in which we live, and the Word we are sent to bear witness of before a lost and dying world.  The consequences of abiding in or rejecting that Word are written clearly for all to see, and it is the will of God that not one soul would be lost to perdition, which is why He has done all things necessary to seek and to save every soul He has created.  It is our duty born of His love and His truth, to share His saving Word and Will with everyone to whom we are sent, knowing that our salvation is always found by abiding in the Word and Will of Jesus Christ alone.  Soli Deo Gloria!